This invention relates to an automatic rhythm system for an electrical musical instrument wherein variations of basic rhythm patterns are automatically introduced at a selectable rate and more particularly, to an electronic organ with an operator programmable arrangement for selecting the order in which selectable variations are introduced.
A number of automatic rhythm programmers are in use which provide electrical pulses for actuating a group of electrical musical voice generators according to repeated preselected rhythmic patterns, e.g., waltz, dixieland, march, etc. Such voice generators comprise known electrical circuits which, when pulsed, produce in conjunction with an audio output system, various untuned musical sounds of the type usually associated with the percussion section of an orchestra. These musical sounds are useful to provide rhythm background accompaniment for an electrical musical instrument such as an electronic organ.
Since such basic rhythm patterns sound monotonous after being played for any length of time, an automatic system for introducing rhythm pattern variations was developed and patented as U.S. Pat. No. 3,958,483 which is assigned to the assignee of the present application. This automatic rhythm varying apparatus provides for prdetermined variations on each basic rhythm pattern available from the musical instrument. The rhythm pattern variations are automatically changed from one to another in a predefined order and at a selectable rate. The apparatus provides for changing the variations in sequential order, that is first variation one, followed by variation two, three, etc. and then repeating the rhythm variations over and over in the same sequential order.
Although providing a great improvement over existing prior art rhythm systems, this apparatus does not provide any control over the sequential order of the variations introduced into the basic rhythm patterns. Thus, although a high proficient player would vary not only the basic rhythm patterns but also the sequential ordering of those variations, such control is not possible on the existing system.